Education Commons^™

How To Design Culturally Inclusive Online Learning Experiences, Casey Frechette, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Ludmila Layne

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

In this paper, we argue that adapting online courses for specific cultural groups takes time-intensive guesswork. Instead, instructional designers should employ the principles of universal design and social constructivism to build a course culture inclusive of all learners. Culture affects learners’ experiences in important, interconnected ways. Yet, it is equally difficult to predict culture’s effects on learning (Guild & Garger, 2016). These difficulties stem from the inherent complexity in human behavior. First, individuals may not reflect their cohort, especially when they belong to groups with conflicting values. Second, beliefs can influence one another in unforeseeable ways, and cultural values can …